1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to alignment mechanisms and more particularly to alignment mechanisms transporting documents for processing purposes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the normal processing of letter mail by the U.S. Postal Service, other postal services, and their patrons much of the mail must be sorted by codes such as ZIP codes or other coding methods useful in subsequent operations on the mail pieces. Traditionally a high proportion of this mail is fed by some conveyor means to a position which is visually accessible to an operator. The operator then reads the code on the face of the individual letters and then keys in data to direct the mailpiece to the appropriate bin in the sorting scheme.
Of late it has become increasingly desirable to perform the sorting operation by means of some automated or mechanized method in order to increase the rate at which sorting can be performed and decrease the manual labor content of the operation.